Today’s Shows

See White Rabbits at Webster Hall on Thursday

April 10th, 2012

Stephen Patterson (vocals, piano and guitar) began playing drums with much older jazz musicians in Columbia, Mo., which helped him learn to play other instruments. “It was always a struggle for me early on to learn how to play instruments that had notes. Once I started viewing the keyboards as 88 drums, it really opened up the way I can play.” In the meantime, Greg Roberts (guitar and vocals), a coworker at Streetside Records, was in a punk band with Alex Even (guitar) and Matt Clark (drums), and they asked Patterson to join. Things didn’t really begin to take off until Roberts bumped the original singer. After that, White Rabbits began making music and touring. But the next thing to shape the band was moving to Brooklyn and having Patterson’s childhood neighbor Jamie Levinson (also drums) round out the sound. The rest, as they say, is history. They soon became known for the high-energy live shows, switching instruments onstage and notable covers. With Rustine Bragaw as the new bassist, White Rabbits (above, doing “Temporary” on Late Show with David Letterman) released the well-received Milk Famous last month and they play Webster Hall on Thursday night.